𝑺𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝑨𝒏𝒏𝒂𝒃𝒆𝒕𝒉...

Explainations

Annabeth and Percy were rooted to the ground, eyes bulging our of their sockets and a million expressions passing their faces.

Shock, astonishment, disbelief, longing  and finally joy

While others ran left and right, gathering weapons the duo walked straight to the barrier as if they were in a daze.

All their protests fell on deaf ears seeing that in no time Percy and Annabeth were outside the protection of the barrier.

They were walking towards the drakon cautiously, as one would approach a lost pet. When the drakon showed no signs of attacking, Annabeth slowly ran her hand on the scales on the side of its neck.

There were tears streaming down their faces and their friends just gawked at them, speechless. How the drakon was not attacking the duo was beyond them. It looked like the drakon was a super large pet by the way both Percy and Annabeth were hugging the life out of it.

"H- how?" Percy stuttered, "where are they buddy?" He whispered softly, "where's Bob? Damasen?"

"Here friend."

Their heads flew toward the direction of the voice. There stood the friendly Titan and Giant, smiling softly a few feet behind the drakon.

From the pockets of his janitor's uniform peeked the skeletal cat scanning the area for enemies. As soon as its eyes landed on the duo it jumped out from the pockets of its master and ran over and tackled Annabeth to the ground. Avengers and demigods were tense, waiting for a signal to fight but relaxed when Annabeth started laughing through her tears.

Percy snapped out of his shock and ran over to hug the life out of Bob. Annabeth too wasted no time to get up and small Bob positioned itself on her shoulder she went to give a hug to Damasen.

"I found another fate. I broke the cycle. Like you said" Damasen whispered, the smile not leaving his face and ruffled her hair in an affectionate way. Annabeth's grin widened as she looked up at her friend and hugged him again.

"The monsters. They're sensing you. They're coming" Bob announced all of a sudden and reality hit the duo like a brick wall. They nodded and ran to the border with the avengers and demigods in tow. They stopped to allow entrance to their newly reunited friends before running again through the barrier collapsing on the ground.

****

"How? what happened? Start from the beginning" Percy asked, still not believing the fact that the two friends who sacrificed themselves for his safe passage were sitting right beside him outside the headquarters, on the ground.

Percy's teammates and Bob, damasen had introduced themselves a while ago and got acquainted with each other. Now they were sitting in a circle on the ground since the the doors of headquarters was too small for Damasen to squeeze into.

"River Lethe"Bob shrugged as if it explained all.

"What Iapetus meant was that after the last elevator left with you in it there was a war inside Tartarus. I fought with him while he held the upwards button of the lift" Damasen explained pointing at Bob.

"When you were safe and out he came to join the fight. We steered him away from the doors and he started throwing  pointed rocks at us. We dodged it but it punctured a vein of tartarus' body."

"The vein that contained river Lethe" Annabeth completed.

She started to put the pieces together. Her thinking was correct. Damasen explained how the water sprouted out like a fountain, showering around 200 monsters who were gathered around. They were confused as they had no idea what was happening.

They saw that other monsters, i.e. Bob and damasen were fighting Tartarus so they started fighting him too. Her friends took the momentary distraction and fled the scene.

"There are many entrances and exits in Tartarus, for us. We went to the nearest one to escape and saw an army led by Akhlys, Geras and Eris. We overheard them talking how they were going to kill every last demigod alive. So we followed them outside."

The silence was broken by Leo who asked who Geras and Eris were.

"Geras, god of old age and Eris, goddess of strife. Children of Nyx" Bob explained.

"The only problem with that exit was that it opened into the labyrinth." Damasen continued but was interrupted by Annabeth.

"How? Labyrinth collapsed with the death of Daedalus."

"Labyrinth was never totally dead. It was just a matter of time before someone else took Daedalus'place."

Leo's face was pale as paper as he remembered how in Epirus he and Hazel were forced into the mist by the witch lady.

"Pasiphae" he whispered, "she trapped me and hazel in a mist Labyrinth. But that wasn't real. Hazel manipulated the mist and trapped the witch lady."

"That makes sense." Damasen muttered, scratching his chin. "Do you know how mist works?"

"Yes, we have to show what the person desires to see or what is real to create mist" Thalia answered since she was the only one among the group who knew how to manipulate the mist.

" Exactly" Damasen smiled, "for mist to look real Pasiphae had to make an exact replica underground, unconsciously controlling Labyrinth. She became the new master of the Labyrinth. And Leo said that your friend Hazel manipulated the mist and trapped Pasiphae."

Annabeth straightened in her seat, "what you mean is Hazel is the one controlling Labyrinth now."

"Yes, by trapping Pasiphae, the current master of labyrinth, Hazel became the new master of Labyrinth. Whether she's aware of it or not, her emotions control Labyrinth. Now I understand why we didn't get any difficulties in it while the army walked into traps every few feet. Labyrinth is now a nightmare to the ones who have bad intentions."

There was a stunned silence in the room while everyone took in the new information.

"You mean that Labyrinth will now be safe for people with pure intentions bad death for others" Percy asked, even though he knew the answer, it didn't hurt to confirm.

"Yes, the Labyrinth is now safe for any of us."

****

What do you think of this chapter. Is my explaination of their return and Labyrinth logical? I was waiting for this moment since the start of the book.

Were you able to guess it?

Thank you for those votes and comments... It makes me write more.

I was writing this instead of attending my online lectures.

Your welcome...   ; )